Today’s blog post is going to be a little different. Instead of a post that talks about my adventures in a recent video game or my opinions on a recent game story I would instead like to announce my participation in this year’s Extra Life Charity event.

I have mentioned this event before (Be MOP #370) but this Extra Life event allows video game players from around the world to come together in order to do what we love best. On Saturday October 25th, we’ll play for an entire 24 hours in order to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals charity. You sponsor me, I’ll play and sick little kids will benefit.

I ran into the Extra Life organization at last year’s Boston FIG and I had wanted to join the 2013 Extra Life event, but because I was unemployed at the time I could not justify setting that much time and effort aside to raising money and to actually play videogames all day when I could spend my time looking for a full-time job. But, a year later, I have found a proper job and I am now financially stable enough to take a full day off from my life to play video games for the sake of charity.

It’s what our gaming community does

Last weekend I finally sat down and officially signed up as a participant for the event. When I was at the sign-up page on the Extra Life website I decided to set the my fundraising goal at $200, above the 100 dollar minimum but still achievable for a first time fundraiser. When it came to which hospital I should donate all the proceeds to I chose to support the local Boston Children’s Hospital.

Now, I have just over four months to raise 200 dollars to reach my goal and in order to achieve this I need to find eight people to sponsor me at the rate $1/hr (24$ total), but any amount of donation would be appreciated. You wouldn’t have to sponsor all 24 hours if you didn’t want to, you could sponsor the last few hours or just make a set amount donation.

Extra life wants to try to have people sponsor players by the hour but as you can see there is a variety of different options. including a custom amount to donate.

From years of volunteering at my fair share of political organizations I have realized that blindly asking for money without giving back to the community will not get you very far. So starting today if you donate to my cause, at any price, your name will be credited on the list of my sponsors that will be credited on my Twitch Channel (and possibly creating a new Blog page) and people who donate at the rate of $1/hr will be entered in a raffle to name of our family’s brand spanking new baby chicks.

My mom has offered this deal to others. She’s a writer so she traded an interview for naming rights and as a result we have a Jodi Picoult, Judy Blume, Chris Bojalian, and Meg Cabot chicken in our flock. Your chicken would be in outstanding company.

and here’s the lucky lady in question and for donation of just $24 you could have the chance to name this chicken

Followers of my mother’s blog (simplethrift) will know that my family owns and raises chickens as pets. Just recently my family received a new batch of chicks that are currently unnamed and out of the goodness of my mother’s heart she has allowed me the to give a lucky donator the chance to name one of the newest chickens in our coup anything they want (but she does ask you to keep it clean.)

And to sweeten the deal even more if we reach the stretch goal of $200 by October 25th, as a treat to everyone I will stream the entire of 24 hours of gameplay on Twitch. I am going to play videogames for the entire day but if we reach the goal you get to see video proof of it.

My current streaming schedule is in place so that I will be well seasoned at livestreaming by the time the Extra Life event kicks off

If you would like to donate to this wonderful event, my Extra Life donation account can be found HERE. The site currently accepts all credit cards. This won’t be the last time I mention this event but the sooner I reach my goal of $200 the sooner I can stop asking for donations.

And to any other gamers out there that found themselves interested in this event and want to try their hand as raising money for a local hospital the extra life FAQ and sign up can be found HERE.